My picky cat won't eat dry food. How do I get her to eat kibble?

Hello, Cats can be very finicky eaters. Most truly healthy cats with no dental disease will not starve themselves of kibble if left with only that option. However, cats can seriously damage their liver if they go too long without eating, and some cats are both very finicky and very strong willed. You may just have to make your cat his special texture food. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

I hate to hear this is happening to Isabella. This situation can be both frustrating and scary. Cats can become finicky eaters for several reasons: https://www.petcoach.co/article/my-pet-is-a-finicky-eater/ Unfortunately, it's impossible to know if Isabella is sick and if this is the cause of the finicky eating without a veterinary exam. If she is sick, she may be selective about her foods. Think about when you don't feel well. Most people are more willing to eat a warm bowl of soup than a piece of plain dried toast. Pets can be the same way. If she is sick, there is not likely anything you can do to encourage her to eat other foods without addressing the underlying illness. Just like humans, pets can not feel well for many reasons and this could range from intestinal parasites to cancer. In my opinion, your best option is to have her examined by the veterinarian. I agree that the chicken and chicken franks is not nutritionally balanced but if she will not eat any cat food, you don't have any options other trying a homemade diet, canned cat food, freeze dried cat food or raw cat food. You can't force her eat dry cat food and if you can't try different foods, you really don't have any options unfortunately. I will caution you that feeding a home made diet and raw diet is not generally recommended. The vast majority of homemade diets are found to be unbalanced. Balanced homemade diets can be formulated but you will need the help of a veterinarian.Raw diets can contain harmful bacteria to both people and pets. These require special handling. You would want any raw or freeze dried diets to be formulated to meet AAFCO standards and it will say this on the bag. Cats especially need certain amino acids to maintain heart health. Here is some information regarding homemade diets: https://www.petcoach.co/article/homemade-diets/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/homemade-cat-food-recipes-lack-essential-nutrients-finds-new-stud/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/raw-and-homemade-diets-what-you-need-to-know/ If you want to feed a homemade diet, I recommend to connect with your local veterinary community for information regarding local resources. You are certainly welcome to try different types of kibble to see if you can find anything she will eat that is commercially available. Some cats like the food to be switched every few days. You may end up with a lot of cat food however than she will not eat but you don't know until you try. I hope this helps to provide some guidance. Please feel free to post any additional questions.

Rogue is a beautiful cat! First I would have her evaluated by her veterinarian to make sure there is no medical reason she is less interested in her food. Possibilities include a sore tooth, inflamed gums, gastrointestinal discomfort or food sensitivities. In the meantime you could try adding a little warm water to her food to soften it and enhance the smell or you could offer her some canned food mixed in or on the side, or you could try transitioning her to another brand of dry food.

This is a tricky situation. Some cats just have very strong preferences. You can try mixing the wet and dry and slowly fading out the wet over the course of 1-2 weeks. You can also try adding some hot water to the dry food and letting it sit for 10 minutes before offering it to Oliver (I will warn you that not many cats are fooled by this, but worth a try). Another idea is to experiment with different dry foods - he may just not like the one you have. Finally, you may have to wait for him to grow out of this. He's still very young. If none of the ideas above work, use coupons and big box stores to get wet food and keep trying with the dry every 2 weeks. Good luck!

I would first make sure that she does not have a medical condition that is making her not want to eat; especially if this is a new behavior. If a vet has checked her and deemed her healthy, then there are a few good tips for getting her to eat normal cat food in the article at the link below. https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/feline-picky-eaters I hope that helps and all is well with Kiki.

Some cats prefer one type of food over another. I would just leave dry food out for him to nibble on and then feed him small amounts of canned food twice a day. He has plenty of teeth that he should be able to chew small kibble. He will begin to eat more dry as he continues to get older and gets hungrier. I hope this helps!

Sounds like Diva might be living up to her name ;-) She might simply be a picky eater, some cats are picky eaters. I hope that she is at least eating wet food, and getting nutrition from there. If she isn't eating at all, then there may be something medically wrong, and she should see a vet. I can give you a few tips to maybe help with this problem. First, make sure the food is kitten specific. Kittens need more of certain nutrients to help them grow, and an adult food won't provide that. I would try mixing the wet food and the dry food. Make a 50:50 mixture, and as she eats that, slowly decrease the amount of wet food, and increase the amount of dry food. I would do this over the course of at least 2 weeks to get her more used to the dry food, and eventually, you should have her on dry food only. If that doesn't work, you can try wetting the dry food with a can of chicken broth, but make sure the chicken broth is unsalted. See if these tips work for getting Diva on a dry food, as dry food does help keep their teeth clean.